Perhaps you have used autofocus and the camera has been unable to focus before the next shot was taken?

A sophistical rhetorician, inebriated with the exuberance of his own verbosity, and gifted with an egotistical imagination that can at all times command an interminable and inconsistent series of arguments to malign an opponent and to glorify himself.

On the other hand a robotic pano head offers little advantage, over a manual pano head, if shooting with a fisheye lens. A manual pano head will typically have a considerably smaller nadir 'footprint' than the Panogear mount.

Thanks for the tip.However, I would like to make the best use of the Panogear and the Nikon I have without investing more money if I can. It seems that even with the Papywizard index, the AutoPano is not capable to produce good 360x180 stitching. That is very frustrating, as I was under the impression that by having the exact location per each picture should allow the stitcher to come up with perfect merges.Are there any system mechanical or SW tweaks that may help to optimize the stitching of the photos ?

neta wrote:Thanks for the tip.However, I would like to make the best use of the Panogear and the Nikon I have without investing more money if I can. It seems that even with the Papywizard index, the AutoPano is not capable to produce good 360x180 stitching. That is very frustrating, as I was under the impression that by having the exact location per each picture should allow the stitcher to come up with perfect merges.Are there any system mechanical or SW tweaks that may help to optimize the stitching of the photos ?

Thanks again !

Netanel

Are you using the lens at min. 18mm focal length?

Are you sure you are not getting zoom and/or focus creep (lens components moving under their own mass) when at high positive and negative pitch - I found that I had creep with my 18-55mm kit zoom unless I taped it.

What shooting pattern are you using?

Are you confident that the camera/lens is correctly mounted at the No Parallax Point.

Presumably the camera/lens is mounted in portrait orientation?

Are you shooting panos indoors or outdoors?

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The 'problem' with using a 'kit' zoom lens like your 18-105mm is that:

1,. You will need many more images that iof usinga fisheye to cover 360x180, this results in many more seams between images and hence possible stitch errors, and more chance of ending up with 'featureless' images that cannot be precisely placed although using Papywizard Import wizard shoudl assist placement.

2. You may get zoom and/or focus creep.

3. The depth of field will be less than if using a fisheye.

4. Zooms do not perform as well as prime lenses.

5. Typically you will end up with a much larger image that you need which will have demanded much more processing power and time to produce.

yes, 18mm focal length"Are you sure you are not getting zoom or focus creep when at high positive and negative pitch" - What do you mean by "Creep" ? I set the camera to manual exposure and focus, letting the Panogear to only "take the shot".The pattern is calculated by the Papywizard. For 360x90, with 10% overlap it gives 2x6 pictures.How do I set to the "no parallax point?" I did not see any documentation about it.It is in landscape orientation, shooting indoor.

"Are you sure you are not getting zoom or focus creep when at high positive and negative pitch" - What do you mean by "Creep" ? I set the camera to manual exposure and focus, letting the Panogear to only "take the shot".

If you point your camera upward or tilt it downwards does the lens move under its own mass? If so that's zoom and/or focus creep.

Do the EXIFs of your image set all report the same focal length?

The pattern is calculated by the Papywizard. For 360x90, with 10% overlap it gives 2x6 pictures.

10% overlap is never sufficient, you should use 25-30% overlap.

If shooting spherical panos with a pano FOV of 360x180 you should use the Papywizard Preset mode not the Mosaic mode. When shooting spherical panos you need fewer images per row as you approach the zenith and nadir (to avoid excessive overlapping which can cause stitching problems), and Mosaic mode shoots a regular matrix/grid with the same number of images in every row.

There may be a pre-installed preset that's suitable for your 1.5x crop sensor and 18mm lens but if not this database will provide suggestions for shooting patterns so that you can create your own custom preset:http://www.vrwave.com/panoramic-lens-database/nikon/

How do I set to the "no parallax point?" I did not see any documentation about it.It is in landscape orientation, shooting indoor.

Oh dear....you've a bit more to learn yet. But fear not, it's not rocket science.

The No Parallax Point (NPP) is the position where the camera/lens rotates around the entry pupil on both axes.

It is always desirable to mount teh camera/lens at the NPP whe shooting panos, but it is essential if shooting indoors, or other scenes where there are subjects close to the camera, otherwise you will have no chance of achieving a good stitch.

You will need to mount the camera/lens in portrait orientation to achieve this when using the Panogear/Merlin mount.

There are a number of ways of determining the NPP - a Google search will reveal more information but here's a few links:

I have found the NPP ! (it wasnt too bad, your links were of great help) and put the overlap on 30%All I have left now is to figure out how to reduce the 7 seconds delay from the shutter trigger to the panogear start moving to the next picture...

I used it. It took ~10 minutes to complete. I guess I cant expect better timing.The issues I see are marked with black circles in the attached.Is this due to the camera not being on the NPP ?

Thanks,Netanel

Maybe, it's the sort of scene that poses challenges to APP/APG's control point detection system - a lot of relatively featureless plain colour walls.

The stitching errors appear to be on 'stuff' closer to the camera - that suggest it may be a parallax issue because the camera/lens is not set at the NPP. It's more important that the camera is centred on the yaw axis and at right angles to the upper rail, than being absolutely precise in fore/aft positioning in the upper rail.

You should use the Control Point Editor to investigate the links between images. Look for and remove any links between non-adajacent images to start with. Then optimise again and investigate any remaining poor quality links with high RMS values - can you post a screenshot of the pano in the Control Point Editor showing the links (see example below).

If you expect to get perfect stitches every time regardless of the nature of the scene, and without any user intervention, you are going to be disappointed - it's just not going happen, especially shooting interiors with an 18mm rectilinear lens.

You should use the Control Point Editor to investigate the links between images. Look for and remove any links between non-adajacent images to start with. Then optimise again and investigate any remaining poor quality links with high RMS values - can you post a screenshot of the pano in the Control Point Editor showing the links (see example below).